Call me a Starbuck's Barista, because I grind

Man, sorry for the big lag in posts but to be honest not too much has been happening lately since I went back to levelling the main BD class. I have been going strong and hardcore on the BD until I get to level 77. At the moment I'm about 25% away so hopefully in the next 2 weeks I can get my really uber dances.

In other news, The Final Heroes clan, after almost a year, is pretty much done. We have moved the entire core over to the Furions (which I misspelled, it's actually the Furyans). Appologies for the mistake, but by the time I found out I had already spent 2 million adena and approximately 2 million SP on making the clan (whatever the costs were to make the clan level 3). So, with that said- last night the clan did the level 4 quest, woohoo! Thanks so much to Crystalvixen for keeping me alive after being poisoned and immobilzed by Witch Kalis. Thanks to my champions, DaveMustaine, MrHand, and Havoch- an especally huge thanks to Dave who gave his life as a sacrifice to prove his clan loyalty. Uber thanks to Mr. Hand who blew through getting the quest item and then running to complete the quest of eva trial ALONE, where we usually needed a few clan members to whap the boxes. Thanks much to Bisnitchslamfist and Piewacket who joined us as well, it wouldn't be the same without the rest of the orcs to round our the crew! So, we're level 4 and hopefully this coming week we'll be invited back into the Elemental Storm Alliance.

Been messing around and finding out more and more little things in C5, such as- you can now be armed when wearing your formal wear! So, with that- here's another pic of Aleena in "Bringin Sexy Back" mode!

Lastly, I have been grinding in Blazing Swamp a bit working on the Noblesse quest, it turns out that I might need about 500 Moonstone Shards for this one, so...lots of dead orcs, and- A DROP! w00t!

Some raid fun!

So, I was lucky enough to be invited to a TOI raid run with, questionably, one the server's most 1337 clans/alliances. The Damned allowed me to be a guest BD for a quick pvp/raid boss ninja run, which I was more than happy to go on since I realy miss doing raids and haven't done a whole lot of them since I was in D grade, as well as finding out for myself how much more difficult the C5 raid bosses were. Here's an early staging pic of us in Aden Church-


Man, that's alot of Draconic LA! I felt out of place with so many draconic bows and stuff around so I went to go fetch mine as well for this run. Since I'm only level 76, they had to keep dropping a 77 SD into/out of party from another one of the raid parties to dance shadow for us, I felt so gimp. So, after that I made a decision that I'm not going to level my buffbot or my subclass anymore, I'm going back to hardcore grinding the BD to 77...that shadow dance is pretty uber.

The run started with the nobles porting up to toi 5f while the rest of us ran up, from 5f to 11f they ninjaed their way all the way up and then as they came up to 11f and Longhorn they ran up on Conviction, who they are warring, and just really wiped them out. To be honest, it was pretty one-sided since there were 3 full groups of TD geared and buffed for raid and just kind of swooped in on the mixed conviction/others and took them out pretty quick and stole their raid boss. Convction was really pretty outnumbered, so they didn't have too much of a chance unless all of the other groups there for the raid party defended, which they did not.

So Conviction was cleared out in short order, we took Longhorn. With Lord of Lords taking a hiatus from Bartz to cash in on the adena rush and farming on Franz now, alot more raid bosses are available, so we then went across the floor and took out the other 11f raid boss.

From there we headed up to 13f where we also raided Galaxia (a few snapshots...)





After Galaxia they went up to do Baium. I unfortunately am out of fabrics, so I will have to restock and take that quest again at some point in case I have another opportunity like this. All in all, it was one of the more fun nights I've had in L2 in a while. So much grinding to get to 76 and the third class change and all the waiting for the subclass quest, this was a great respite from that.

Lastly, my old clan seems to be falling apart. The Final Heroes may be disbanding. I have since left the clan and am currently looking for a new one. At the present time some of the displaced clan members want to start a new clan, so I started one for them and am donating some of my SP to get them up to level 4, at which point I will transfer the leadership and most likely leave to find where I should be longterm. It is almost my one year anniversary in L2, woohoo! i m so n00b!

C5 Quest Guides

Wow, finding out more and more stuff about C5 that is just kind of good and kind of a pain. For one thing, you can port from the Dawn Priest at any time now, however prices have gone up significantly- ports that used to cost ike 1000aa all of a sudden now cost 8000aa. Also, alot of the standard gatekeepers have ALOT more destinations...some prices are lower and some are higher, and some locations are gone...so this might end up even.

One big loss though, is that there are no more dawn ports into TOI, so no more going to 5f/7f/10f/13f from the priest. All of a sudden I am SOOOO grateful that I did my subclass quests in C4, I could not IMAGINE running up 14 flights in TOI. Talk about "ripping your eye out with a spoon" kind of pain!

So, I have contined exploring Schuttgart and in the process I have written about six new quest guides that hopefully will be published to Stratics. I am finishing up the screenshot cleanup for the seventh, they are as follows:

Ominous News- Level 20
Making the Harvest Grounds Safe- Level 21
Ghosts of Batur- Level 23
Pavel The Giant- Level 46
Influx of Machines- Level 46
Resurrection of an Old Manager- Level 49


[kekeke there's my artisan, Grace Steelforge, doing the level 2x quests]

Lastly, have you guys all seen the Dark Elf mage in Apella Robes with the Sword of Miracles figurine that is supposed to be coming out soon?





Looks pretty hot imo, however it's a resin model that must be hand painted [which explains why human flesh tones were applied to it instead of standard dark elf coloration]. That's good and bad in a way...for someone like me with absolutely no artistic talent at all, here's what will happen:

Aleena has acquired Dark Elf Figurine
Aleena has acquired Dark Elf Flash Tone Paint
Aleena has acquired Black Paint
Aleena has acquired Gold Paint
Aleena has acquired Paintbrush
[Begin Painting]
[cat jumps on my lap]
Dark Elf Figurine Has Disappeared
Paintbrush Has Disappeared
Aleena Has Failed to Craft Dark Elf Figurine after paying $75.00 USD

o.O just wrong!!!

In non-lineage news, I bought my first pair of designer jeans...woohoo...as someone who never pays more than $50 for a pair or jeans to jump up to like $200 is a big step. My wife has been buying the designer jeans for a few years now- Sevens, Citizens of Humanity, True Religion, etc... At one point I had looked into getting her a gift for a birthday or valentine's day to Earnest Sewn in Soho, they will actually custom tailor a pair of jeans for you where you can pick out everything from the fabric/denim to the zipper/rivets/buttons for buttonfly/etc. But you have to make an appointment like a month in advance for a fitting and it is also about $600-$800 a pair [[OMG!!]].

I settled on a pair from Paper, Denim and Cloth. I have to admit they are exceptionally comfortable, moreso than something from Gap or Banana Republic...however...it is REALLY doubtful that I would spend that much on a second pair.

One last thing: If there are any Kevin Smith/Clerks fans you HAVE TO download the clip from this website from the Opie and Anthony show where Kevin and Joel Siegel just go at it from Joel being an asshat at the Clerks II screening.

see fahve

Woohoo C5 is here! Some pretty cool stuff, the "improved solo'ing" mods are kinda neat. Now that I've subclassed archer, I really appreciate the instant mp restore powerups, I read about these and the HP restores but I didn't know that they also had some that buff you as well, the only teaser about them is that the buffing herbs only last two minutes [just like songs/dances]. Overall, still pretty nice and even nicer when you have your buffbot in tow anyway.

I've been exploring Schuttgart mostly (woohoo some new mobs!)until a friend asked me to go with him to farm some of the new spellbooks in the Frozen Labyrinth...Last night was THE night to sell books apparently since the mana burn/erase/magical backfire books were asking anywhere from 1-5m on Bartz (omg!).

On the downside, I made a character on Franz also figuring it would be really cool to relive the game fromm the beginning. I don't mean like a reroll on the existing server, but a reroll while everyone else was rerolling so you could explore all the newbie areas again with actual people instead of just bots.

Sadly, the starter areas were like 80% bots...I could not even find a gremlin to kill to finish the newbie quest to get the free NG-SS. horrible. I'm afraid Franz is DOA. Maybe next time, NC.

In other more personal news, I think my current clan may be disbanding soon. Our leader has pretty much checked out of the game, he's been dealing with alot of real life issues lately and I think he may sink the ship with him. It's a shame to watch a good person deteriorate over time like this. He's been one of the most giving, motivating and responsible people I've met in the game. But over the last few months it's been nothing but moodiness, and now he's kind of abandoning. He simply does not care about anyone else at the moment. The worst part is that alot of clanmembers have entrusted items in the clan warehouse as well as on his person, which I think we may end up losing at this point.

Popular opinion dictates that reputation in the game is pretty important, so at this point he could be remembered for doing the right thing and transferring leadership so at least people can get things done, or he can be remembered as the person who has forsaken his entire clan. His window is getting pretty short to make a decision, here's to hoping he can see past the fog that is clouding his eyes at the moment.